Misty waters

1.Hidden truth

Dedicated to my generous friend and my teacher who made this book possible.

 7 years later

I rolled on my side to switch on the lamp; I just couldn't sleep, my Aunt's absence had left my nights sleepless. She never let me leave the house for even an hour unless she was there to supervise me, now there is practically no one left but me and the maids.

An odd tapping on the window brought forth a new thought in my pool of tangled thoughts, what if the cloaked people came to get me? What if they're already here?

I shot a fervent glance at the window leading to a small balcony; there was nothing. The night was growing colder and I could feel it with every breath. Tomorrow would mark the end of my life in this white-washed country house and I will have to move to an old castle at the end of all town settlements.

To have such a ridiculous will doesn't make much sense to me at all. My Aunt left one December evening saying she needed to see a friend of hers and then she never returned, no letters, no phone calls, just a will that commanded me to be sent to a castle. The town's people urged us to proclaim her dead as her whereabouts were as untraceable as footsteps under freshly fallen snow. And so we did, only to invite her in our worries.

They say the castle was owned by the king of this land who disappeared with the queen and soldiers to a desolate island further east of Thornica years ago. Some say he abandoned us, some claim he lives still but the castle on the other hand remains in the hands of a woman who is to become my guardian.

I had been abandoned at the age of six and I don't recall a fragment of a memory before that age. I know not a thing about my parents who left me to be mothered by my only Aunt and I presume I will never know, now that she has disappeared too.

I glanced one last time at my portrait with Aunt Anne, we were a queer pair really; I was a dark headed child with glittering green eyes however Auntie was fair haired and had remarkable blue eyes like everyone in town; She was perfectly ordinary but I wasn't, not for the people at least.-

"Goodbye Mrs Floyd, Miss Laurence and Mrs Margaret, I'll see you some day, if I can manage it" I said and sat in the powder blue Volkswagen, too troubled to look back from the misted window.

I pulled my brown hat down till my ears and fixed my glasses though my maids had tried to convince me that I could abandon the practice. It had become a habit out of utter fear and desperation, my Aunt had done a great part in doing that. She told me stories about dazzling people in dull cloaks who captured souls in tiny bottles, especially souls of people like me; odd people.

So I must hide myself, hide the eyes that make me so queer and undesirable. I stared out the window timidly; I had been taken out of my house rarely on absolute urgent occasions like doctor appointments or cloth shopping.

The prospering country side left me in absolute awe, there was so much of this land that I had never seen and might ever see. Sheep and goats grazed in meadows on the right of my window while a shepherd lazed underneath a birch tree. The clouds drifted across the baby blue sky, scattering and covering every bit of sunshine they could.

After hours we arrived at the gossiped castle that always made it to the horror stories told in class. It loomed over a perfectly pruned and tended rose garden, its turrets and walls covered in creepers and climbers of various sorts. My breath got stuck in my throat and I stood gaping at my new home in apprehension.

"Miss... your luggage" The driver broke the eerie silence after I failed to move

"Oh thank you." I answered hurriedly taking the only two bags I had brought with me.

Pulling the straps over my weary shoulders I made my way towards the wrought iron gates as silently as I possibly could. Carved iron flowers adorned the old gate delicately while statues of horses stood on either side of it, their milky eyes gazing farther into the plains of Thornica.

I pushed open the gate and trudged on the gravel path into the spectacular building. Two great wooden doors stood before me with brass knockers that had roses made onto them. I knocked the doors hoping against all hopes that the woman in this castle refuses to take me in, so that I resume my life the way it was.

The doors creaked open just as I brought my hand back from the knocker. A plump middle aged woman peered from behind the giant oak doors and flung her arms over me emotionally.

"Oh Violet dear you have come at last! We have waited for so long" She said wiping a stray tear from the corner of her small blue eyes.

I stared at her perplexedly but didn't show any confusion, how does this woman know me? When I haven't even seen her face before

"Uh hello" I smiled nervously as she ushered me in, taking my bags and leading me into a great hall that was a lit and warm. She dropped the bags on the floor, locked the doors and led me to a winding staircase.

"She's waiting for you in the library" She whispered before leaving me on the first stair.

My legs felt as though they were made of jelly as I climbed the stairs, thinking of what stories await me in the library. My heavy footsteps made me more conscious of myself. What kinds of people live here? And why were they waiting for me?

I knocked the sturdy door with white knuckles and a dulled pounding of my heart in my ears. "Come in" a voice answered and I clicked open the door.

The library was a fairly small room with a desk, two shelves against the wall and a window overlooking a garden. Large volumes of different sorts cluttered the desk and a faint smell of roses met my nose. There was a lady, maybe in her twenties standing by the window looking outside with her hands clasped behind her.

She turned as soon as I entered and smiled one of the most attractive smiles I had ever seen. She was tall, slender and in more ways than one; different, like me.

"Take a chair won't you" She gestured towards a cushioned chair opposite to the desk.

"This must be a...bizarre experience for you I believe" she said pushing back her dark hair and fixing her gold gaze on me.

"Yes...it is but I don't understand why I am supposed to be here?" I said at last.

"First let me introduce myself. My name is Rosetta but you may call me Rose as you so often did as a child-"

"I don't remember knowing you" I exclaimed.

"You don't remember your childhood either. Well some years of it any ways. I am your sister"

"Why-why didn't you live with me then? Why didn't Auntie ever tell me about you?" I burst out at the outrageous information she fed me.

"We feared that I too might disappear like our parents and if I did, what would become of you? Therefore we kept the truth hidden until the unthinkable happened; Our Aunt... and so I must be your guardian and tell you everything about our parents."

Her words ringed in my ears like some spun story to deviate my thoughts and my head began to throb incessantly.

"My parents abandoned me"

"No they protected you"